Eoin Morgan Rocks

Paul Farbrace says when the England team had turned up on the ground on the third day, the strategy was not to put Pakistan in the field once they were all out, but, to impose the follow-on and have them batting again and that’s why, in the opening session, the main bowlers of the side were not bowled too much so that they could be ready to steam in with new red duke.

But, one of the lower order partnerships from Pakistan stretched their innings to afternoon which forced the think tank to reconsider the plan they had thought of initially because the condition for batting had not remained difficult enough and letting Pakistan bat at that time was risky in the sense that they could have scored their runs quickly under the bright sun and the pacers could have lost their energy too bowling in the heat. Read more »

Despite scoring a century on the recent tour of Australia, Manish Pandey failed to find a place in the Indian squad for the World Twenty 20 Championship.

It’s Ajinkya Rahane who got the nod from the selection committee instead of him.

If the comparison is made between Rahane and Pandey, the latter is probably a better T20 player as he has got the combination of the power and the touch game.

Rahane, on the other hand, is all about touch game and although, he can play his shots from time to time, he can’t be expected to just blow the opposition away with his hitting.

He is a good option to have at the top of the order for you as a captain, but, if the ball has got old and the pitch has got a little bit slow, he would not be your preferred choice to be out there in the middle.

But, that’s not the case with Pandey. He can go both ways.

He can open the innings as well and can play conventional Cricket shots against the new ball to collect boundaries and he can then start cross-batting too once the innings progresses and reaches its business end.

However, since Rahane has featured in big tournaments quite a lot in the last 3-4 seasons, he is much ahead of Pandey from experience point of view and that’s the reason, the selectors have gone with him. Read more »

It was a wide cross-seam delivery by Josh Hazlewood and after pitching, it was going further away. It was surely to be left for the wicketkeeper. But, Lyth just threw his bat at it and got the edge.

For a fraction of a second, he would have thought he got away with it as Adam Voges at the first slip position for Australia juggled with the ball a little bit before grabbing it eventually and sending the Yorkshire left hander on his way.

After England’s loss at Lord’s, much of the talk was about the poor form of Gary Ballance and Lyth sort of slipped under it, but, now, if he fails in the second innings too in the ongoing test match, the knives would be out. Read more »

Eoin Morgan missed his hundred at Leeds in the 4th One Day against Australia, but, his innings ensured that his team equalized the series 2-2.

Now, the 5th game, which is going to take place in Manchester, has turned into a decider.

Hunting down the target of 300, England had lost three wickets below the 100-mark and all the hopes were lying with the skipper again and the Middlesex man was up to take the responsibility.

He knew even if he played quietly for a brief period of time, it was of no worry as the required run rate could be caught up later on, but, losing more wickets at that juncture would have been disastrous.

He took odd calculated risks in between and punished the bowlers whenever he was given width outside the off stump, but, till the 35th over mark, his focus was mainly on singles and twos.

And, very calmly, he got England to a position where they had enough wickets in hands with not too many runs required to score.

Morgan would definitely have liked to stay till the end and finish the job himself, but, a brilliant catch at backward point by Glenn Maxwell sent him back to the hut.

However, the likes of Bairstow, Plunkett and Moeen Ali played good hands thereafter and England got to the target in the penultimate over.

Moeen was lucky though that Matthew Wade dropped him when he had just come on to bat. Had that catch been taken, the game could have turned around, but, it wasn’t to be. Read more »